Most Class II dental restorations, i.e., those on the grinding surface of molars, employ amalgams which typically contain approximately equal proportions, by weight, of mercury and a high silver amalgam alloy. Conventional amalgam alloys are usually based upon on alloy having the following composition, by weight:
Silver, at least 65 percent
Tin, up to 29 percent
Copper, up to 6 percent
Zinc, up to 2 percent
However, this standard alloy is now rarely, if ever, used by itself as a dental amalgam alloy because significant amounts of the readily corrodible tin-mercury gamma-2 phase forms when it is amalgamated. For this reason, a considerable amount of research has been done to find alloys that can be blended with the standard alloy and still maintain adequate working time and acceptable physical properties.
The present invention provides an amalgam alloy blend wherein the said standard alloy is mixed with a second alloy to produce an amalgam alloy having adequate working time, acceptable physical properties, and as an added bonus, a slight but significant reduction in the proportion of the increasingly expensive silver in the alloy.